Summary of NIHR funding streams
V 1.0 07-06-07
Contents
1Programmes
1.1Programme Grants for Applied Research
2Projects
2.1Research for the Patient Benefit
2.2Research for Innovation Speculation and Creativity (RISC)
2.3New and Emerging Applications of Technology (NEAT)
2.3.1Translation Research
2.3.2Feasibility Study projects
2.4HTA Clinical Trials
2.5Health Technology Devices (HTD)
1Programmes
1.1Programme Grants for Applied Research
Programme Grants for Applied Research are awards of up to £2m over a period of three to five years, the aim of which will be to:
- Provide evidence to improve health outcomes in England through promotion of health, prevention of ill health, and optimal disease management (including safety and quality), with particular emphasis on conditions causing significant disease burden, where other research funders may not be focused, or there is insufficient funding available
- Enable NHS trusts to tackle areas of high priority or need for health
- Provide some stability of funding to support the long-term development of top quality applied research groups working in the NHS
- Replace, in part, programmes of research currently supported by the Priorities and Needs (PNF) component of NHS R&D Support Funding for NHS Providers
A Programme Grant for Applied Research will support:
- Work whose emphasis is on delivering research findings that will have practical application for the benefit of patients. Benefit would typically be through improved health care or better health care delivery. The programmes will therefore be largely health services research and/or innovation (eg introduction of new technologies), where there is potential gain for patients within the relatively near future, ie"near market" research with application in the NHS within a 3-5 year time scale
- A number of high quality related projects, and associated infrastructure, which form a coherent theme in an area of priority or need for the NHS, and where added value is gained from the combination of the various strands of research
- NIHRll-balanced teams of leading researchers, from the NHS and academia working together, who can demonstrate an impressive track-record of achievement in applied health research (including innovation and, where appropriate, evidence synthesis and assembly for dissemination at national level), based on publications, previous research funding, and impact on NHS service provision
- Applied health research, and the programme’s infrastructure needs, including: health services research;public health research; behavioural research; economic evaluations; and modelling (eg decision analytic studies)
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- NIHR will use the Frascati definition of applied research[1]; ie that applied researchis original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge, which is directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective
- In order to ensure that the research is relevant, has practical application in the NHS, and has the maximum chance of uptake, NIHR expect one of the co-applicants on the grant application to be an NHS manager with direct or indirect responsibility for clinical service delivery
- Innovation, development and (as appropriate) evidence synthesis and assembly (eg Cochrane reviews). Programme grants for applied research will normally support a significant proportion of development work (typically expected to be at least 30% of the activity funded by the grant), defined as limited implementation of a service development in the NHS, together with a formal, integrated research evaluation
- Work which, within the period of grant funding, will either definitively show the value of a treatment, package of care or service improvement, enabling it to be implemented more widely within the NHS, as appropriate, or demonstrate justification for and feasibility of a larger scale evaluation
- Work which represents continuation of the own account elements of existing NHS R&D Programmes (funded previously by NHS Priorities & Needs R&D Funding). The prior existence of a PNF funded NHS R&D Programme is not a requirement, hoNIHRver, and where existing programmes are being continued, it is essential that the proposed work is a programme of applied health research which meets the criteria of breadth, coherence, relevance, application within a 3-5 year timescale, etc., outlined in this guidance. The rating given by DH to existing NHS R&D Programmes in its assessment of R&D Annual Reports is not relevant to this new funding stream and will not be taken into account in the assessment of applications
Competition 2
Competition launch / Early April 2007
Registration of intention to submit deadline / 27th April 2007 , 5:00pm
Outline Application submission deadline / 11th June 2007 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Outline Application / Late July 2007
Full Application submission deadline / 22nd October 2007 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Full Application / Late February 2008
Competition 3
Competition launch / Late June 2007
Registration of intention to submit deadline / 30th July 2007 , 5:00pm
Outline Application submission deadline / 8th October 2007 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Outline Application / December 2007
Full Application submission deadline / 18th February 2008 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Full Application / Late June 2008
Competition 4
Competition launch / Early April 2008
Registration of intention to submit deadline / 28th April 2008 , 5:00pm
Outline Application submission deadline / 9th June 2008 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Outline Application / Late July 2008
Full Application submission deadline / 20th October 2008 , 5:00pm
Notification of outcome of Full Application / Late February 2009
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2Projects
2.1Research for the Patient Benefit
This programme is intended to support research which is related to the day-to-day practice of health service staff and is capable of showing a demonstrable impact on the health or health care of users of the service. Funded research projects are likely to fall into the areas of health service research and public health research, although other areas are not excluded from the programme. The research projects will use quantitative or qualitative methods to:
• study the provision and use of NHS services;
• evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of interventions;
• examine the resource utilisation of alternative means for healthcare delivery;
• formally scrutinise innovations and developments; and
• pilot or consider the feasibility of projects requiring major grant applications to other funders.
Project grants should be up to 36 months duration with a total maximum cost of £250k including overheads. RfPB Project grants will also fund pilot studies, feasibility studies, meta-analysis, modelling studies and so forth.
Potential applicants should visit the programme NIHRbsite for news and for the most up-to-date information
Competition 3Registration of intention to submit deadline / 11 April 2007, 5 PM
Submission Deadline / 23 May 2007, 5 PM
Declaration and Signatures deadline / 30 May 2007, 5 PM
Submission Outcome / 13 October 2007, 5 PM
Competition 4
Registration of intention to submit deadline / 10 August 2007, 5 PM
Submission Deadline / 21 September 2007, 5 PM
Declaration and Signatures deadline / 28 September 2007, 5 PM
Submission Outcome / 16 February 2008, 5 PM
Competition 5
Registration of intention to submit deadline / 03 January 2008, 5 PM
Submission Deadline / 08 February 2008, 5 PM
Declaration and Signatures deadline / 15 February 2007, 5 PM
Submission Outcome / 06 June 2008, 5 PM
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2.2Research for Innovation Speculation and Creativity (RISC)
The RISC programme will support potentially paradigm-changing projects in Health Services and Public Health Research. The aim is to fund new and radical ideas for health research that have potential for high impact but which are unlikely to fair NIHRll in traditional peer review processes.
NIHR programmes apply the Frascati definition of applied research[2]; i.e.that applied researchis original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge, which is directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective.
Competition Launch Date / 9am, 2nd April 2007Submission Deadline / 5pm, 29th May 2007
Outcome Date / 5pm, 16th July 2007
2.3New and Emerging Applications of Technology (NEAT)
NEAT covers all areas of health and social care where new or innovative technological approaches can be developed. Projects meeting the national priorities as specified in the NHS Plan are particularly NIHRlcome.
The programme involves initiatives in both the life and physical sciences. The main aim of the programme is to promote and support through applied research, the use of new or emerging technologies to develop health care products and interventions to enhance the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health and social care. The research will be strategic and applied in nature, and will have the potential (although not necessarily a direct aim) for generating both intellectual property and cost reducing products and interventions. The main purpose of this programme is to overcome a development barrier and its outputs must have wide applicability and be capable of exploitation.
The NEAT programme will shortly be replaced by the new Invention for Innovation programme. Further information about the Invention for Innovation programme will be available shortly from the Central Commissioning Facility NIHRbsite (
2.3.1Translation Research
The New and Emerging Applications of Technology programme wishes to invite outline proposals for strategic applied research which utilises recent advances in fundamental knowledge and technology to develop products and interventions for improved health and social care or for disease prevention and treatment.
Call opens / 10th May 2007Deadline for submission of outlines / 5pm, 5th July 2007
Invite full applications / 5pm, 5th October 2007
Deadline for submission of full applications / 5pm, 16th November 2007
Application outcome / 5pm, 3rd March 2008
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2.3.2Feasibility Study projects
The purpose of this funding stream is to apply advances in fundamental knowledge and technology to the development of new products and interventions for improved health and social care or for disease prevention and treatment. Funds are available for a number of short projects of up to 12 months duration to obtain proof of principle for technology applications currently at the preliminary stages of development.
Grants will be awarded in the region of £10K-£70K. Feasibility study bids that seek short-term recruitment of new staff will not be supported, the research detailed in the application must be carried out by current members of your research organisation.
Call opens / 10th May 2007Deadline for submission of full applications / 5pm, 5th July 2007
Application outcome / 5pm, 5th October 2007
2.4HTA Clinical Trials
The NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme has a responsive funding stream for clinical trials to assess the effectiveness of technologies within the NHS.
Grants are available for pragmatic clinical trials of the sort already funded by the HTA programme, but on topics proposed by the researchers. Researchers are invited to submit outline primary research proposals on an ongoing basis.The HTA intend to consider applications twice a year and there are cut-off deadlines for proposals to reach the NCCHTA offices so they can be assessed. The next cut-off date will be 16 January 2008 (13.00 hrs).
Application deadline / Researchers are invited to submit outline primary research proposals on an ongoing basis.Cut-off deadline / 16 January 2008 (13.00 hrs).
2.5Health Technology Devices (HTD)
The HTD programme is inviting proposals for projects concerning:
- Medical devices (including tissue engineering and trauma care devices);
- Devices that interact with medical devices used in the NHS;
- Novel information technology development that enables a significant improvement in the performance of healthcare technologies;
- Healthcare devices for use in the community and patient home.
Project teams must contain at least one industrial partner and at least one research-based partner, and projects are limited to a maximum of 3 years.
Application deadline / Monday 2 July 2007.Cut-off deadline / 16 January 2008 (13.00 hrs).
HTD is expected to close to new applications at the end of January 2008, and the programme itself is expected to close at the end of January 2011 with the completion of the final projects.
C McGrath
Head of R&D (SUHT)
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[1]Frascati Manual 2002: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Experimental Development, OECD, Paris, 2002
[2]Frascati Manual 2002: Proposed Standard Practice for Surveys of Research and Experimental Development, OECD, Paris, 2002